Brocade Web Tools Administrator's Guide v6.2.0 (53-1001194-01, April 2009)

Web Tools Administrator’s Guide 161

53-1001194-01

Chapter

Using the FC-FC Routing Service

In this chapter

•Fibre Channel routing overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

•Supported switches for Fibre Channel routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

•Setting up FC-FC routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

•FC-FC routing management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

•Viewing EX_Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

•Viewing LSAN zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

•Configuring the backbone fabric ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Fibre Channel routing overview

Fibre Channel routing provides connectivity to devices in different fabrics without merging the

fabrics.

For example, Fibre Channel routing allows you to share tape drives across multiple fabrics without

the administrative problems, such as change management, network management, scalability,

reliability, availability, and serviceability that might result from merging the fabrics.

Fibre Channel routing lets you create logical storage area networks (LSANs) that can span fabrics.

These LSANs allow Fibre Channel zones to cross physical SAN boundaries without merging the

fabrics while maintaining the access controls of zones.

NOTE

When the Virtual Fabrics capability is enabled, FCR operations are allowed only on the base switch.

EX_port configurations are supported only on the base switch. Also, because FC ports on 7500

extension switches cannot be added to a base switch, EX_port configuration for FC ports on 7500

extension switches is blocked.